Minutes of the Meeting of AORTIC International

Place: Hilton New Orleans Riverside, Meeting

Room: Chequers.

Poydras at the Mississippi River, New Orleans, LA 70140

Date and Time: June 6, 2004, 6:40 – 8:30 pm

Attendance:

• Charles Olweny (Uganda/Canada)
• Olajide O. Ajayi (Nigeria)
• Oladapo Campbell (Nigeria)
  Barrie Adedeji (USA)
• Olayinka Oshai (Nigeria)
• Echimane K. Antoine (Cote d’Ivoire)
• Francis Ikpatt (Nigeria/USA)
• Margaret Mastrianni (USA)
• Chris Williams (Nigeria/Canada)
• Hamouda Boussen (Tunisia)
• Silvio Monfardini (Italy)
• Jimmie Holland (USA)
• Ahmed Elzawawy (Egypt)
• James Holland (USA)
• Hussein Khaled (Egypt)
• Leonard Thomas (USA)
• Otis Bradley (USA)
• Yasir A. Ibrahim Sudan/USA)
• Daniela Minerva (Italy)
• Ahmed Elsayem (Sudan/USA)
• Sulma Mohammed Sudan/USA)
• Joe Harford (USA)

Sections:

• Review of the agenda
• Introduction
• Message from Aortic president
• Agenda # 9
• NCI-USA and AORTIC
• Emerging educational Opportunity
• International meeting of interest
• Other Matters

Review of the agenda:

The meeting started with a review of the agenda. A number of changes were made to accommodate the expressed request of some attendees.

Introduction:

Dr. Christopher Williams, who chaired the meeting, introduced himself and gave a brief history of AORTIC. This was followed by the self-introduction of the other attendees present at the time.

Message from Aortic president:

Dr. Williams read Dr. Ayettey’s (AORTIC President) message, copies of which were distributed at the meeting. Review of the agenda. The agenda was reviewed and modified as some members had previous commitments.

Agenda # 9:

Speaking on the proposed AORTIC International Symposium at AORTIC 2005 in Senegal. Dr. Olopade gave a summary about a successful symposium that took place in Nigeria by Nigerian Medical Women Association. In the symposium the Nigerian women discussed their need in training and education in cancer screening and prevention. Dr. Olopade suggested similar symposiums to assess the need for every African country and promotion of sustained grass route programs.

NCI-USA and AORTIC:

Dr. Joe Harford expressed his pleasure to attend the meeting and gave a brief summary of his office International activity. NCI spend about 1-2% of its budget in international activity and that is managed through his office. NCI spent about $40,000 to support AORTIC meeting in Accra, Ghana last year and will be providing support for the executive council of AORTIC to meet in Cairo this October during the INCTR meeting. Dr. Harford explained that the NCI will support the AORTIC organization but will not run the program. They are not interested in AORTIC to be an NCI program. Dr. Williams thanked the NCI through Dr. Harford and said that with the offer of assistance, NCI was showing leadership in international support for AORTIC, an example that would hopefully be followed by other international cancer control organization. In terms of palliative care, Dr. Jimmie Holland said that she would meet with WHO and UICC and solicit the advice of Dr. Dave Johnson of Wisconsin on how to transport opium.
Dr. Ajayi, commenting on the earlier report of Dr. Olopade, suggested that AORTIC should maximize its efforts promoting and sustaining “grass root programs”..

Emerging educational Opportunity:

Barrie Adedeji reported on some training and opportunities that may accrue from a contact that she has at the Meharry Medical College. She suggested that the contact could be posted on the AORTIC web site. Dr. Harford also suggested that his institutional web site could be linked to that of AORTIC so that AORTIC members could avail themselves of postdoc opportunities posted there.

International meeting of interest:

UICC World Conference for Cancer Organization will take place in November 2004 in Dublin, Ireland. Dr. Holland reported that Dr. Williams had submitted an abstract on AORTIC to be presented at the meeting. The next UICC meeting will be held in Cairo in 2005. AORTIC Executive Committee would be meeting immediately after the meeting of the International Network for Cancer Treatment and Research (INCTR) in Cairo in October 2004. Dr. Williams suggested that the Cairo meeting of the Executive Committee should be used in defining an administrative structure, re-affirming the mission, and goals, as well as reviewing the draft constitution of AORTIC.

Group photograph:

A group photograph was taken before the meeting adjourned.

The meeting was brought to an end at about 8.30 pm.

Recorded by Sulma Mohammed, PhD, DVM
And edited by Christopher K.O. Williams, MD, FRCPC.